Gardening: Prudent pruning

Its time to be snipping those early-flowering shrubs and plants into shape to ensure bountiful blooms next year, says Charles Chesshire

High summer is not generally thought of as a top pruning season, yet there are a number of shrubs that benefit greatly from being pruned now. The summer pruning of spring- and early summer-flowering plants such as philadelphus, deutzias, spiraea and syringa, as well as once-flowering shrub roses, is carried out to prevent them becoming large and dense. Pruning lightens and reinvigorates them, giving them a much more graceful and pleasing look. It also encourages the production of larger flowers.

The aim is therefore threefold: first, to remove all old and wizened shoots, many of which may even be dead; second, to open up the framework of the plant or to mould it to fit its setting; and third, but most importantly, to encourage much bolder and more profuse flowering.

The principle behind the pruning of most shrubs is fairly straightforward: simply prune them after flowering. A late summer-flowering shrub,